ABSTRACT
Crime statistics remain essential in the studies of criminology and criminal justice policy. In Western Europe, the era of statistical enthusiasm is said to have begun in the 1820s and 1830s. Almost two centuries later, however, there is no indication that the age of statistics is nearing its end. To the contrary, in the past few decades, the evolutions and revolutions in digital information, data storage and computational capacities, and computer literacy seem to have permeated the world. In the West, the validity and reliability of official crime statistics are more often under scrutiny than elsewhere. Governments of developed countries are also more likely to invest in maintaining lengthy series of official crime data. It is understood that collecting, distributing, interpreting, and comparing official crime statistics is always a fluid process. Official statistics remain a vital part of academic inquiry, political discourse and governmental policy in Western societies. There is a normative dimension involved in the creation of crime statistics.
